www.cclcitytraining.com 1 2007 update on anti-money laundering (aml) compliance securities &...

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www.cclcitytraining.com

2007 Update on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Compliance

Securities & Investment InstituteRisk Forum

Tuesday 4th December 2007

Presented by: Peter Brown FSI

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Lessons from history!• A selection of significant FSA enforcement cases:

– Northern Ireland Insurance Broker : shut down.– Paine Webber : Fine £350,000.– Royal Bank of Scotland : Fine £750,000.– Northern Bank : Fine £1,250,000.– Abbey National : Fine £2,000,000.– Bank of Scotland : Fine £1,250,000.– Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich: Fine £150,000.– Bank of Ireland : Fine £375,000.– Investment Services UK Ltd: Fine £175,000.– Mr Ram Melwani: Fine £30,000.

• Remember generally Principle 6 – exercising due skill and care! David Whistance, ex-FD of Williams de Broe, did not do so (in respect of handling client assets and settlements) and was personally fined £30,000.00.

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ScopeThe UK’s 2007 Anti-Money Laundering Regime• The Money Laundering Regulations 2007• The FSA

– New SYSC Rules– Senior Management Obligations

• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)• JMLSG Guidance• Risk Assessments• Enforcement• Extra Bedtime Reading

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1. The Money Laundering Regulations 2007• The new Money Laundering Regulations 2007 (the

Regulations) will be effective from 15th December 2007 and continue the ‘established style’ of referring to obligations for “a relevant person”.

• Regulation 2 defines a relevant person as “…. a person to whom, in accordance with Regulations 3 and 4, these Regulations apply….”.

• There are no references in the Regulations to Senior Management – HM Treasury would probably say that there is no need!

• However, the new JMLSG Guidance re-enforces the concept of senior management responsibilities.

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1. The Money Laundering Regulations 2007• Significant changes - by statistics:• Length – 33 pages are now 48, a 45% increase.• Glossary of terms (Regulation 2):

– 10 unchanged– 7 modified– 15 deleted– 24 new– An increase from 32 defined terms to 41 (28%).

• Other significant changes by substance are reflected in the new JMLSG Guidance – predominantly new statutory matters coming from previously recommended guidance.

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2. The FSA

• Changes in the FSA Handbook are currently being driven by two significant factors:– A general move to principles based regulation.– A strong reliance on risk based approaches.

• Changes driven by two other new EU Directives:– MiFID– CRD

• New SYSC rules need to provide a ‘common platform’ for firms impacted by these two other directives and also update the SYSC anti-money laundering rules as well.

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2.1. The New SYSC Rules• For all ‘common platform’ firms, the new SYSC rules

covering Compliance, Internal Audit and Financial Crime were to take effect on or by 1st November 2007.

• These rules, insofar as they cover a firm’s anti-money laundering regime, do not bring substantial changes, but they do need to be read as reconfirming the earlier AML obligations for senior management – as defined!

• Not all firms have yet begun to recognize these senior management obligations or the risk assessed approach requirement that was introduced by the then new FSA Rules in March 2006!

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2.1. The New SYSC Rules• The new FSA Rules contain the holistic requirement to

address the prevention of ‘financial crime’, which includes money laundering and terrorist financing as well as fraud and market abuse.

• They continue to emphasise – as they have done since 1st March 2006 (effective by 1st September 2006) - the responsibilities that are those of senior management.

• There is thus an even clearer distinction drawn between the MLRO’s and senior management’s responsibilities.

• Not all firms seem to have grasped this distinction yet!• New SYSC Rule references are not quoted in the

JMLSG Guidance 2007.

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2.2. Senior Management Obligations

• FSA Rules require senior management to:– Establish an effective risk-based AML regime.– Ensure ongoing effectiveness of their policies and

procedures.– Appoint an MLRO with appropriate competences

and provide adequate resources for the job.– Designate a specific member of senior management to

be responsible for the discharge of senior management’s AML obligations.

– The designated senior manager needs to be able to demonstrate ‘involvement’ in AML matters.

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2.2. Senior Management Obligations

Recent quotes about the MPBR (More Principles Based Regulation) era:

• “Another reason for the shift to more principles is that the FSA wants to push responsibility for compliance higher up organisations.”

• “By focusing on outcomes and principles instead, the FSA expects to see key regulatory decisions taken at a more senior level with heavy involvement from the board of directors. This will mean a significant change in behaviour and management attention for many people in financial services firms.”

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2. FSA – Senior Management Obligations for AML ComplianceRecent quotes (cont’d):• “If it is going to work properly it is going to require

much more active engagement between compliance and senior management.”

• “Q: Will senior management have to spend more time on compliance issues?A: There is a general move of responsibility for interpreting the rules from the FSA to senior management. Additionally, the FSA ….wants senior management to take leadership of some specific compliance areas such as……anti-money laundering and financial crime.”

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3. Financial Action Task Force• The FATF’s end-2006 evaluation review of the UK has

produced a report with a number of matters of relevance to firms’ senior managers.

• There is, from the report, new pressure on the FSA to:– Undertake more AML compliance monitoring on

small/smaller firms – ARROW reviews are not recognised by FATF as monitoring!

– Possibly enforce more disciplinary actions on firms.– Potentially enforce more disciplinary actions on

senior managers in firms found to be deficient.

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4. JMLSG Guidance

• The JMLSG Guidance becomes effective, in line with the new Regulations, on 15th December 2007.

• It will continue – subject to gaining statutory approval from HM Treasury – to provide a ‘safe harbour’ for firms, their senior managers and staff, if challenged over breaches of the statutes, Regulations, reporting obligations or relevant FSA Rules, when compliance with the Guidance can be demonstrated; the FSA regard the Guidance as presenting ‘best practice’.

• If the Guidance is not followed, anything done instead must be demonstrably as good and effective.

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4. 2007 JMLSG Guidance• The six main areas of change in the Guidance, identified

as such at the consultative stage, were:– New and changed definitions, including beneficial

owners, PEPs and trusts.– Customer due diligence (CDD) – all 14 Regulations!– Risk based approach (customer/client,

product/service, delivery and geographic risks; annual reviews to be covered in MLRO’s Annual Report to senior management).

– Reliance on other regulated firms.– Simplified due diligence.– Enhanced due diligence re non face-to-face, PEPs and

correspondent banking.

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4. Risk Based Approach

Verify Identity Verify Identity

KYC

Standard ID&V and other KYC

Risk assess

Extend I.D

MONITORING

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4. 2007 JMLSG Guidance• Other areas of change brought forward from the

Regulations into the 2007 JMLSG Guidance are:– The reporting regime interfacing with SOCA, which

is a Nominated Officer responsibility.– Monitoring, which is now a statutory obligation and,

to be satisfactory, must be:• Documented, in procedures, risk assessments and

potentially other records as well.• A matter of which all relevant staff are fully aware

and to which they are demonstrably alert.• Effectively covered in training for relevant staff.

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5. Risk Assessments• A money laundering risk assessment document is an

essential document for all firms to be able to comply with both statute and the FSA Rules.

• It is neither the same as the Risk Map produced for general compliance purposes nor is its existence satisfied by an ARROW review – its contents will be both complex and fairly extensive (see JMLSG Guidance, Part I, Chapter 4).

• The assessment should be signed off at a senior management level when created and after every (annual) review, whether or not those reviews have resulted in additions or revisions.

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5. Risk Assessments• JMLSG Guidance details the need to assess money

laundering risks under four separate headings:– Product/service risk– Customer/client risk– Delivery risk– Geographic risk

• The number of potential combinations ensuing from this ‘four dimensional risk matrix’ can be significant.

• Simply presenting the results in a meaningful and comprehensible form, to seek senior management approval and sign-off, is a challenge in its own right.

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5. Risk Assessments• Empirical evidence suggests that most firms’

approaches to geographic risk are unduly simplistic and inadequate; it is not sufficient to judge all EU/FATF firms as automatically low risk.

• The JMLSG posted a paper on its website on 7th September 2006, (Assessment of AML/CFT standards in other countries) effectively restating the expectations of geographic risk assessments that have been in place since the JMLSG Guidance Notes 2003.

• Sections 2 and 5 of this paper are particularly important is recognising, first of all, what is a ‘comparable jurisdiction’ and then that this is merely the start of the process of undertaking a geographic risk assessment.

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6. Enforcement• There is evidence that the FSA is already targeting

smaller/small firms and is prepared to monitor the smallest of firms with the lowest of ML risk ratings.– It could be you next!– Are you as a firm ready with your answers to the

FSA’s questions?– Is your designated senior manager ready and able to

deliver those answers?• What sorts of questions could the FSA expect to look to

the designated senior manager (rather than the MLRO) to answer?

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6. Enforcement• Do you make use of the JMLSG Guidance in your

day-to-day operations? Which edition do you use?• Have your overall AML policies and procedures changed

since the removal of the ML Sourcebook and the implementation of the revised Guidance?

• If so, what are the key changes you have made?• Did you use the services of outside consultants for this

purpose?• Have you nominated a senior manager, other than the

MLRO, to be responsible for AML controls? What is their name and job title?

(cont’d)

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6. Enforcement• What is the extent of their involvement in the firm’s

AML work?• Have you assessed and documented the money laundering

risk to your business? If so, please summarise your approach and describe how it has affected your overall AML controls.

• Has your firm made use of the new opportunities to simplify ID requirements in accordance with the new JMLSG Guidance?

• Does your firm rely on other regulated firms to conduct ID checks in accordance with the new JMLSG Guidance?

• How have changes in your overall ML Policies and Procedures been communicated to staff?

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7. Extra Bedtime Reading• In July 2007 the FSA published a report from some

themed review work, entitled ‘FSA Review of private banks’ anti-money laundering systems and controls’.

• Although needing to include the following in the report, “9.This report does not constitute formal guidance from the FSA given under section 157 of the Financial Services and Markets Act”, it nevertheless actually does manage to provide very useful guidance.

• Was it a financial crime review or a fraud risk review or an AML review? Does it matter?

• Consider it as an essential template!

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Any Questions?

Thank you for listening

GOODBYE!

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